US government moves roughly $23,000 in bitcoin from 'Villanueva' forfeiture wallet

The U.S. government moved roughly $23,000 worth of bitcoin from a wallet labeled on-chain as tied to funds seized from “Miguel Villanueva,” according to blockchain data spotted Tuesday.

Three separate transactions were recorded from the address tagged “U.S. Government: Miguel Villanueva Seized Funds (bc1qw)” on the Arkham Intelligence platform.

The transfers, moved to three different addresses, included approximately 0.0378 BTC, 0.24 BTC and 0.0568 BTC, totaling about 0.3346 BTC. At current bitcoin prices, the combined value of the transfers was roughly $23,000.

Following the three transactions, the originating Villanueva-labeled wallet appeared fully drained.

Public blockchain trackers identify the address as tied to a forfeiture linked to Miguel Villanueva, though The Block could not locate public court records detailing the underlying seizure.

The movements come as federal officials have reiterated that seized bitcoin is being retained under President Donald Trump’s strategic bitcoin reserve policy. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in January that the administration’s approach is to stop selling seized bitcoin and instead add forfeited assets to the government’s digital asset reserve.

The U.S. government currently holds roughly 328,000 bitcoins, worth more than $22 billion at current prices, making it one of the largest known bitcoin holders globally.